Movies under robot attack from Chappie, Ultron
From a childlike police android to a mechanical megalomaniac built by Iron Man, robots are staging an uprising at the movies.
As artificial intelligence continues to emerge in society — think drones and self-driving cars — robots consequently are playing a bigger role in the cinematic world.
"Robots are real now, and anything that's a real part of our lives is something that people would be exploring on film," says Daniel H. Wilson, whose 2011 novel Robopocalypse is being adapted for the screen by Steven Spielberg.
On Friday, Neill Blomkamp's Chappie introduces a rabbit-eared 'bot (Sharlto Copley) originally built for law enforcement, but which instead becomes a study in human consciousness. And the thriller Ex Machina (out April 10) follows two men (Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac) and their complicated relationship with a female A.I. entity (Alicia Vikander).
"Robots hold up a mirror to humanity," Wilson says. "They do so many things that we can do."
This spring, the killer robot Ultron (voiced by James Spader) threatens the world and its greatest superheroes in Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 1). The Marvel Studios film is an example of "seeing how a villain can be a representation of the hero, or in some ways the counterpoint to that hero," says producer Kevin Feige.
Even Skynet, the all-powerful, self-aware computer network that brings about an apocalypse, is back in Terminator: Genisys (July 1). Director Alan Taylor sees the original 1984 Terminator as foreshadowing "the spooky things" that have come true when the machines "know us better than we know ourselves,'' he says. "We're totally integrated, and our social lives and intimate lives are totally embedded in the computer world in ways they weren't before."
A film about "the birth of a pure soul or spirit," Chappie is born from Blomkamp's dual interests in A.I. and Darwinism. Even if there were an actual "robopocalypse,'' he says, he wouldn't view it as a total negative. "It's a step potentially in the right direction. I don't have anything invested in humans — I have a lot invested in the idea of evolution continuing its spiral of complexity."
The hero of Chappie is along the lines of friendly mechanical characters such as droids C-3PO and R2-D2, who return to the big screen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Dec. 18). However, more often than not, robots are the bad guys.
Karel Capek's 1920 play R.U.R. first used the term "robot" for characters who exterminated the human race. Plus, for every Robbie the Robot in 1956'sForbidden Planet, Wilson says, there are 10 other movie androids of that era carrying women off to their doom, like Gort in 1951'sThe Day the Earth Stood Still.
Wilson sees a love/hate relationship between humans and technology, not only in real life but also in pop culture.
"Every new advancement has wonderful applications mixed in with a little bit of gut-wrenching fear," he says.
"It's nice to go to the movie theaters and shoot technology in the face with a shotgun and have a good smile and a laugh, and then go back into our world that's much more complex."